Summoning A Breakthrough, Part Four

Thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you haven’t already, read parts one, two, and three.

After Dorian returned home from his emergency appendectomy, he was on post-op recovery for six weeks and could not work. Since he wasn’t eligible for FMLA he applied for unemployment insurance, which he was initially approved for, but then his approval was revoked pending an “adjudication process”. Now, I understand that our state has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and that the request for assistance is great. Heck, I even understand that the application process may be slower than normal because of the influx of people seeking help. And I can understand that some people’s applications may be subjected to review because of the high number of people trying to pull a scam. But there is one thing that the powers-that-be fail to realize – that poor people, or people who are just down on their luck at that particular time, may not have the means to keep themselves afloat while they attempt to navigate the sea of red tape that is bureaucracy. While they wait for assistance, it is wholeheartedly possible for struggling people to get behind on their bills, lose their home, or not be able to buy essential medicines/groceries. It’s easy for someone to look down and ask why we didn’t have a nest egg stashed away; well, if we didn’t have enough money in each paycheck to take care of our bills and still have money left over to stash away, then what were we supposed to do? Everyone just can’t walk into a well paying job. Everyone doesn’t have well-off relatives (or more importantly, well-off relatives who are willing to share their money). A lot of people have sacrificed everything they can to make the minimal-paying job that they were lucky enough to get, work. How many times have you seen/heard/read a story about someone who lost their great job during this economic downturn for whatever reason beyond their control, only to have to settle for a job that pays a quarter of what they used to earn, because that was all that was available in the job market?

Because of our lack of income, the little money we had saved was quickly spent on things like rent, electricity, and heat. We didn’t have anything to spend on the holidays. Our Thanksgiving dinner was modest. Our Christmas wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for Toys for Tots. And by the new year, we were out of money.

The hard thing about today’s economy is that it is extremely hard to find a job. And if you have discriminating tastes (read: I need to find a job that pays enough money for me to at least support my family’s most basic needs versus I’m too good to work at a fast food restaurant, puh-leeeeeeez) it’s even harder for you to find one. So you can imagine our surprise when Dorian received correspondence from a company he had applied with for a lucrative salary (read: They paid enough for us to actually put our financial plans into use). By now, Dorian had passed his post-op exam and returned to his job, but hadn’t completed a full week’s worth of work because business was “slow”. No full paycheck = no full bank account = some bills didn’t get paid. As we reviewed the correspondence from the “dream job”, the prospect of leaving everything behind to take on this new job seemed more and more attractive. So we decided to try and go for it. At night after work Dorian completed and passed all the assessments the dream job required. Then he received an invitation to attend an orientation for the dream job. Only one problem – the orientation was in Montana. How the heck was Dorian supposed to get time off from his current job so he could attend this two-day orientation in Montana?? We also questioned if it was worth it. After all, Dorian already had a job, and IF things were to pick up soon he’d be back on full-time status which meant he’d be making decent money. Not as much money as the dream job, but in order for him to take the dream job we’d have to move out west, and that was only IF he was offered the job.

We received a call from a recruiter for the dream job. To clarify, Dorian is a veteran. He proudly served his country by serving in the Armed Forces for five years. The dream job company was an active recruiter of veterans who were looking to transition to secure, lucrative, honest civilian work. They were so committed to employing veterans that they employed a department (staffed by veterans) whose sole purpose was to reach out to interested veterans to answer any questions they had and to help make the transition from military work to civilian work as easy as possible. In a nutshell, they really loved them some veterans. Either that, or they really loved that tax break they got from good ol’ Uncle Sam for hiring veterans. The recruiter was patient and listened to all of our questions, and answered them fully. By the time our conversation ended, any fears we had about pursuing the dream job were dashed; man, that recruiter had done his job well! With stars in our eyes and a rejuvenated sense of urgency we decided to go for it, to take the plunge, leave everything behind and go for the dream job. But one question still remained: How was Dorian going to get time off to attend the orientation in Montana?

Then our van, our only vehicle, unexpectedly died on the side of the road while Dorian was travelling to work. Great. Siiiiiiiiiiiigh. But therein lied our answer.

Have you ever been offered a life-changing job opportunity? Ever picked up sticks and left everything behind in pursuit of something greater? Too afraid to take the risk? Let me know, leave a comment below!

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2 thoughts on “Summoning A Breakthrough, Part Four”

I lost my job in 2009 and it took me 6 months to be approved for unemployment. During that time we basically relied on God to supply money into our bank accounts because Kyle is a motorcycle salesman and so we were relying more on my income (a steady paycheck) to actually be able to pay the bills. Once I lost my job, we were living off of $700 a month, and we had a $1700 mortgage. Luckily, we were able to save money up until that point, but now it was dwindling, and like I said, we should have become homeless, but I really think by the grace of God we made it. So we rushed to fix up our house to sell it because things were not looking up and we definitely could not afford that mortgage. Now I’m writing a blog about the house fixings 😉

Dang. Kyle’s car was just broke down for a month and so he was using our truck (the vehicle I normally drive, but I don’t really need it for dear life). Kyle just got his car working 2 days ago, and today the truck broke down. Life.

I hope you guys went for the dream job because it looks like you needed more money to survive…